LINTHICUM, Md. -- Internet giant America Online is filing a number of lawsuits in its quest to stop spam Tuesday. AOL is trying to crack down on spammers, people who send unsolicited e-mails.

WBAL-TV 11 NEWS I-Team reporter Lisa Robinson said an Anne Arundel County man is one of the targets of AOL's lawsuits against unwanted e-mail that floods many mailboxes.

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AOL Targets Anne Arundel Co. Man

AOL has filed five federal lawsuits targeting spammers it accuses of sending around 1 billion junk e-mail messages, promoting everything from mortgages to steroids to porn.

The case stems from about 8 million individual spam complaints from subscribers, most of whom used a feature AOL introduced to report spam. In March, AOL reported that it had blocked 1 billion unwanted messages in one day.

The lawsuits seek damages of more than $10 million, plus an end to the alleged spammers e-mail activities, Robinson reported.

"The message to spammers is pretty simple -- what you're doing is illegal. Stop it. If you don't, we'll come after you," said Randall Boe, who is AOL's general counsel.

The 11 NEWS I-Team has learned that AOL has filed suit against George Alan Moore Jr., who runs Maryland Internet Marketing. A picture of Moore in a car is seen on one of his Web sites that sells dieting products. Robinson reported that on that Web site, Moore writes to users that they can have a car like his and a big paycheck for being a top distributor.

Moore, who was not at home when 11 NEWS visited, told Robinson by phone that he had just learned about the lawsuit and offered no comment.

"I think it's fair, he's reaping what he sowed," anti-spam activist Francis Uy said. Uy is a web manager at Johns Hopkins University.

Moore took Uy to court after Uy published his phone number and address on his Internet Web site that fights spam, Robinson reported. The judge threw out the lawsuit saying that Uy could publish what was public record.

"He sent out messages that clogged a lot of people's servers and wasted a lot of people's time and money," Uy said.

Most of the defendants are listed as "John Doe," meaning AOL couldn't determine their identities. But filing the suits gives AOL more authority to subpoena service providers and others to try to track down the spammers.

A Washington-state man and a Maryland man are among the individuals named in the lawsuits. Their numbers are unlisted, and records for their domain names have false phone numbers.

AOL is also trying to identify spammers who use residential broadband services like Comcast and Road Runner.

Stay with TheWBALChannel.com and WBAL-TV 11 NEWS for the latest news updates.